Vahe Berberian Shares Laughs in Boston

BELMONT, Mass.–On Fri., Oct. 4, the Greater Boston Armenian community had the pleasure of enjoying a monologue performance by Vahe Berberian entitled, “Yete,” at the Chenery Middle School in Belmont. The event was hosted by the Armenian Relief Society (ARS) Cambridge “Shushi” Chapter. The chapter’s president, Heather Krafian, welcomed the 425 guests in the auditorium and thanked the ARS members for their many years of dedicated and tireless service to the Armenian community. She noted that with the success of the evening’s event, the chapter can continue to support the many projects of the ARS, including building, operating, and subsidizing Armenian schools; sponsoring orphans in Armenia and Artsakh; operating Armenian one-day schools; providing university and college scholarships; funding the development of Armenian educational curricula and resource materials; and funding and supporting Armenian youth camps.

Following Berberian’s performance, the chapter hosted a unique dinner event with Vahe Berberian at the “Papken Suni” Agoump in Watertown.

Krafian introduced Berberian as an Armenian painter, author, playwright, director, and actor. His parent’s home in Beirut, Lebanon, once served as a stage where personalities from the worlds of theater, literature, and the arts interacted passionately—where conversation flowed and humor filtered intensely. This is where Vahe Berberian the storyteller was formed.

His stand-up comedies recognize absurdity and embrace laughter. His plays unfold absurdity and validate co-existence. His novels magnify absurdity and blur the lines between reality and fantasy. His paintings are the absurd. Berberian has worked tirelessly in producing more than 65 solo and group exhibitions, 4 one-man shows, 2 published novels, and over a dozen plays written and directed worldwide. Berberian thoroughly entertains his audience with a hysterically funny show, as a master of finding the comedy in personal, social, and cultural topics. In “Yete,” he finds the humor in anxiety. Although Berberian’s anxieties are numerous, he allows one to ponder the humorous side of their fears. He gives the perspective that though your anxieties can overwhelm you and leave you paralyzed, there is humor in anything if you look deep enough.

The profits of the evening’s event will enable the “Shushi” Chapter to continue to provide assistance to the Fund for Syrian-Armenian Relief, three additional ARS-sponsored programs in Syria that assist Armenian schools, the Hot Meals Program in Aleppo, a “Sponsor a Syrian Armenian Family” program (for $100 a month for a year), the St. Stephen’s Armenian Saturday School, St. Stephen’s Armenian Elementary School, AYF camperships to Camp Haiastan, the annual Armenian Genocide program at the Massachusetts State House, local genocide commemorations, local ARS social programs, and the Armenia Fund.

Following Berberian’s performance, the chapter hosted a unique dinner event with Vahe Berberian at the “Papken Suni” Agoump in Watertown. The guests enjoyed a lavish spread of wine, mezze, and kebab during this rare dining opportunity with their favorite Armenian comedian. More than $1,000 was raised solely from the dinner, which will go to the various ARS relief efforts in Syria.